Powell, WY

Chris and Laura still do not have the shop drawings finished.  They said, again, "Hopefully by the end of next week."  They had their baby.  Her name is Katie.

We got a pleasant surprise yesterday evening when I read our new estimate for bringing electric power to our property.  The cost was estimated at $7,700 back in January.  Our new estimate is $4,400 - a savings of $3,300!  Now I don't feel so bad about going $300 over on the kitchen cabinets.

WY DOT will have our mail box post installed in Clark tomorrow by close-of-business.  We just have to go by and take the mounting brackets before they are stolen.

Work was very busy today.  First Carol left because she was in so much pain.  She went to the doctor for muscle relaxers and never came back.  Next, Roly some how ran a steel rod into his palm, and after getting a tetanus shot from Public Health, he also left.  It's tough when you are short-handed.

Today Bob phoned in an ad to both newspapers letting the public know that we are having a yard sale next Friday and Saturday June 7 and 8.  

It rained most of the day again today.  Every thing is very green and our grass is starting to fill it really good.

Tomorrow, Bob will drop me off at work.  Then he will keep the truck and drive to Red Lodge to deliver a check to Beartooth Electric Coop to get the power extension started.  He will keep the truck on Friday too - he has to take it to Garvin Toyota to have the driver side door handle replaced.

On Saturday we are taking Buddy to the vet for his annual check up and shots.  Then we are going to Billings to get a few things for Project House.

Mountains

Yesterday we packed furniture pads in  the truck and drove to Red Lodge to get our bar top.  When we arrived at Unique Juniper Furniture,  they were closed, so we walked up the street and got sandwiches, chips, and drinks at 4th Avenue Meats.

Later we reached Nefer on the phone and he said our bar was not finished because a special job came up.  He promised us it would be done next weekend.  I will be calling him several times this week just to make sure he is going to have it ready.

We popped into the Tea Bar across the street and got a bag of Blood Orange Pu Erh tea and then we headed back home.  We stopped in Clark and talked with Leonard Torczon at the Clark Landfill until he closed it up at 4:00 PM.

Dinner was a frozen thin crust pizza and we went to bed early.

This morning we slept in until 7 AM.  The only reason I got up was because Buddy was crying to go outside.  Then I brewed some tea.

After Bob got up I began loading wooden pallets from the yard into the bed of my truck.  I was able to stack four of them up to the bottom of the back window.  Then I gathered my camera, a cooler, and my jacket.  We got into the truck and went to the grocery store where we got dry ice, drinks, and chips.  Then we went over to Subway to get some sandwiches.  Finally we filled the gas tank and headed to Clark.

Bob marking the mail box spot.

At Clark we stopped at 160 Brushland Drive to put the pallets off in our yard.  We also used yellow spray paint to mark the spot for our mailbox to WY DOT.  Then we headed off to Red Lodge and turned up US 212 toward Beartooth Pass.  The road was just opened for the season yesterday.

This is a very scenic drive that reaches elevations over 10,000 feet.  We drove up, up, up, past the timberline into an alpine environment where the snow was still over 15-feet deep in places!  We saw snow skiers in several locations.  The first place we came to skiers operates a chair lift to bring them back up from their descent.

Bob shows how deep the snow is.

Later we saw a few snowboarders using parachutes to harness the wind and propel them along the snow very quickly.  One man, way up on a mountain top, kept going back and forth along the ridge.  Every so often he would be lifted off and he would "catch air" for a few seconds!

We descended from Beartooth Pass and continued along the road to Cooke City, MT.  We ate our lunch here, just a couple of miles from the Northeast Gate to Yellowstone.  Then we turned around and headed back.  In Wyoming we turned south onto the Chief Joseph Scenic Byway - WY 296, and travelled through the very pretty Sunlight Basin following the Clark's Fork River.  We drove up over Chief Joseph Pass and came back home.

Tomorrow we are going to grill ribs and I am going to start pricing stuff for our yard sale.  I also intend to vacuum clean the truck, and try to get my chicken feeder project finished.

Crazy Creek

Here Bob sits next to the thundering waters pouring through Crazy Creek Falls.  This point is 40 miles from Red Lodge and about 12 miles from Cooke City on US 212 - The Beartooth Highway.

Long Weekend

The Construction Mortgage is recorded.

Hooray!!  We have a  three-day weekend!

Today was gorgeous.  It was sunny with almost no clouds and the temperature was in the 70's.

During lunch today I went to Cody Feed and got a 40-pound bag of Dog Fuel Senior for Buddy.  That cost about $44.

This afternoon I did a quick search through Document Pro for my own name.  I found an Agreement - to purchase real estate, I found a Notary Commission - for my notary public, and I found the Construction Mortgage recorded.  It was recorded yesterday.

We took the dogs for a walk around the neighborhood this evening.  It was nice and there were a lot of people out walking and visiting their neighbors.

Tomorrow morning we are going to mow the grass.  Then we are going over to Red Lodge to get our custom juniper bar and bring it home.  After that?  Who knows?

Cody, WY

It rained all weekend.  It was cold and wet.  We stayed in all weekend.  On Saturday morning we went to the American Legion to pick up our Bountiful Basket, took it home, then went to Pepe's for lunch.  After lunch we browsed the hardware store and then went home.

On Sunday morning I got up thinking we might go to Thermopolis and enjoy the hot springs, but later decided against driving all that distance in the rainy weather.  We stayed inside, read, and took a nap.

It rained yesterday in Powell, but it was mostly dry in Cody.  Today is supposed to be sunny, but then there is a chance of rain again tomorrow.  Let it rain.  Soon we will be wishing it would rain.

Sunday

It was nice being able to sleep all night without having to get up in the middle of the night to let the puppy

Daisy napping in her bed.

outside to pee and then finding that she already peed on the carpet anyway.  We slept until about 8 AM, then I got up and made French toast, broiled Canadian bacon, and fried plantains with black tea for breakfast.

Bob got up 1/2 hour after me and he scooped out the food for the dogs.

After breakfast we browsed wood grain looking tile on the Internet and I gave Mom her Mother's Day phone call.  She was getting Grandma Pat from the home to take her out for hotdogs on Mother's Day.  Hey, it's what she wants, right?

Later I went out to the garage, got the grass whip out, got out the gas cans, and started the lawn mower up.  I mowed the grass while Bob used the grass whip to get weeds and seedlings next to trees, sidewalks, bushes, and the house.  It will be nice for the lawn sprinklers to start working because the yard won't be such a dust bowl.

I ran the mower back behind all of the shrubs and mulched up a bunch of dead dried leaves.  I emptied all of this into the dumpster in the alley.

For lunch we walked to Subway and had sandwiches.  The sun felt very hot today and the thermometer said 90°F on our deck.  It is supposed to be just as hot tomorrow.  I went ahead and put the window fan into our bedroom window up stairs and I have set up the box fan to blow cool air up from the basement.

At 1:30 Bob, Buddy, and I took a nap.  I suspect Daisy went into her little house and took a nap too.

I got up around 5:00 and made Bob get up too.  He made White Bean Chicken Chili for dinner.

After dinner I worked on my leather checkbook project some more.  I used rubber cement to fasten the
inside parts to the thick outside cover, then I began lacing all of the pieces together into one assembly.  I can probably have it done in a few more hours of work.

Tomorrow morning it's back to the grindstone at the office.

Shopping

We went to McDonald's this morning and got the Big Breakfast with hotcakes.  You know, you get more food on a plate than you'd get in a Value Meal ordered at the Drive-Thru.  After breakfast we got onto the road and headed to Billings.

Our first stop was in Laurel, MT where we visited Laurel Trading Post and looked at dumping trailers.  We want to get one to collect construction debris on our jobsite.  We will take it to the landfill once a week to tip it out.  It will also help us bring kitchen cabinets to the house, it will help us when it is time to move, and after the house is done we can move an ATV in it, move gravel, firewood, or hay in it.  The owner, Greg, said that he has financing available through First Interstate Bank and we could pay 50% down and finance the rest.  That might help Bob start re-building his credit.

The next stop was Furniture Row where we looked at sectional sofas.  We found one that looks like it will fit into the space we will have available.  The Copenhagen Sectional can be customized with any color of upholstery you want. 

Now we headed to Home Depot to check out kitchen sinks, bathroom sinks, faucets, wall tile, and doors.  We found an interesting tile product that looks like wooden boards, but it is porcelain tile!  We want to use this on cement backer board for the wall behind our wood stove.  It should make a 2-hour fire-rated wall.

We went to Salad Creations for lunch.  Then headed to Lowe's.

At Lowe's we met with Zana Williams.  We went over the kitchen cabinet quotation with her, and asked for a couple of small changes.   We have selected Shenandoah Cabinets Dominion style cabinet with a Formica Butterum Granite counter top that is looks convincingly like cut and polished stone.  We needed a firm quote to present to the bank to have the funds released so that we can place the order.  A bonus:  if we order by Wednesday, we can get the sink base (a $207 value) free!  We are scanning the quote and sending it to the bank with the Construction Loan Draw Request form.  Hopefully they will release the funds quickly.  Bob will have to return to Billings and place the order on Wednesday.  Another bonus:  using my Veterans Administration ID card, I get an extra 10% off of everything in the store!

We also met with a man at Interior Doors in Lowe's to have a quote created for the interior doors we've selected.  We are going with a pre-hung solid knotty pine door for most of the interior with a frosted glass panel for the pantry door and an obscuring glass panel for the door to the entry.  We had to settle for solid clear pine bi-fold doors for two of the closets.  The half bath has a pocket door, so we selected a the door without door frame and then had the wall pocket with hardware added to the quote.

Next we went to Sam's Club to shop for some groceries.  While we were in there we saw that the high
efficiency toilets were back in stock.  This toilet is dual flush and uses 1.1 gallons per flush for liquids, and 1.6 gallons per flush for solids.  This toilet was only $89.98 each.  We got two.

Our trip back to Powell was kind of warm.  Summer sure seemed to get here fast!

It was after 7:00 PM when we got home.  We let Buddy go outside first thing, then we carried our groceries inside to put away and I stacked the two new toilets in the garage. 

It has taken longer than I intended, but it looks like we are finally getting started on our new house!

Powell, WY

Press button for message.

Barbara came back to work today.  I can't say it was a completely happy reunion.  Her first words were, "I can't understand how six people can be so difficult!"  I guess she's counting everyone but herself.  Then she pointed out that we were 10 days behind on processing the UCC basket.

She had a little tussle with Carol.  Teecee and Karen heard it over in Accounting and they were asking me during lunch what that was all about.

It was a Friday and we had a particularly busy day at the counter.  We made 297 titles this week.  Even Barbara had to admit that we bust our butts at the counter.

Laura Viklund is sending drawings back and forth to the SIP panel manufacturer.  Once they have the shop drawings fixed, which should take about a week, we will cut a check for the 50% down payment.  Laura said the panels currently have a 2 to 3 week lead time.  In  the meantime we will approve a door and window schedule and hopefully we will have the doors and windows delivered as the panels are delivered.

As soon as the panels are delivered, Chris and Laura will set up a  time with the roofer.  We want to get the roof on soon after the walls are erected.  I hope we have lots of pictures to post here as the house progresses.

We are considering a trip to Billings tomorrow to get firm quotes for kitchen cabinets, counter top, and interior doors.  Then we will go to Sam's Club to get some bulk groceries.

Construction Loan

This morning I checked Navy Federal Credit Union online to make sure my pay check was deposited.  Then I transferred money from savings to checking, paid the minimums to Bank of America, Lowe's, and Verizon; made the land payment, and then made the gas payment.  I wrote out a check for $2800.

We went to Pepe's for breakfast.  We both had bacon quesadillas with a side of guacamole.

After breakfast we headed over to First Bank of Wyoming to meet with Trace Paul, our loan manager.  He had a stack of papers for me to sign - a good faith estimate, flood insurance waiver, and lots of pages associated with our construction loan.  We produced three checks from three different banks, and their sum came to $20,000.

Trace took us to the counter and had the checks deposited into our construction loan account.

The remaining $167,000 we are borrowing is metered out very carefully.  Every time a supplier or contractor needs to be paid, we have to submit an invoice with a construction loan draft form.  They transfer the requested funds to the account, and then we can write a check to pay.

It was also explained to us that we can lock-in our mortgage interest rate 60 days before the project is completed, but we have to be sure that the house will be done on time or we might suffer a penalty.

We will be meeting with Chris Gunn and Laura Viklund either tomorrow afternoon or Saturday to get our panel order started and make the needed down payment for the panels.

I am glad we are (finally) getting started!

Post 2360

We stayed home today. 

The weather cleared up and temperatures got up to 68°F.

We cored, peeled, and sliced 50 apples to make apple pie filling.  We put made two pies, and put the rest of the filling into ziploc freezer bags for the future.  There is enough frozen filling for four more pies.  We sliced up 5 more apples and put them in the dehydrator.

Daisy's shedding has become so bad we put her outside all day today.  We are not bringing her in tonight.  I made a little house for her out of a large box.  I stapled her bedding down to the floor inside it.  She can curl her shedding ass up inside that box on the porch tonight.

I showered this evening and shaved my face.  My hair is going to have to be cut again soon.

Back to work again tomorrow morning.

Yellowstone

We got up around 7:00 AM, fed the dogs, and drove to Cody.  It was lightly raining the whole way there. 
We went to Granny's to get breakfast.  Then we stopped at the grocery to get some sandwiches, pretzels, and drinks.  Now we headed west out of town on US 14-16-20 past Buffalo Bill State Park, past Wapiti, past Pahaska... all the way to Yellowstone National Park.

Male bison walking along the highway.

Way up the road ahead I saw what looked like a man in a hat and long jacket walking toward us on the shoulder of the road.  As we passed I saw that it was actually a bison!  We turned around to get pictures of him.

Using Bob's national parks access pass card, we were able to enter the park for free, and this was only the second day the east gate was open.

The ranger manning the gate warned us that Sylvan Pass would be a little slushy and slippery.

We found the pass to be just a little wet.  The park service had heavily sanded the roadway and we had not problems with traction.

At Steamboat Point.

Descending from the pass we stopped at the edge of Yellowstone Lake to see a thermal feature.  This was Steamboat Point.  Most of the lake was still frozen.  We took a picture at Steamboat Point and then got back into the truck and headed toward Fishing Bridge (where, ironically, fishing is now banned), crossed the bridge, and turned right toward Canyon Village.

Because all of the roads inside the park are not plowed yet, there are only a limited number of places you can go right now.  On the way to Canyon Village we saw some bison along the side of the road and we stopped to get pictures of them.  We passed several more just up the road, and then we saw lots of cars parked in the turnout at Mud Volcano, so we pulled in too.

People with their cameras and giant telephoto lenses were watching a black bear up on the hillside scratching for food.  We took some pictures and watched the bear from a safe distance away, then got back into the truck and continued up the road.

We stopped at the Sulphur Cauldron and took a picture of Bob sitting on a wall above it.  The yellow waters were swirling and bubbling far below us and the nose-wrinkling scent of sulphur was in the air here.

At Canyon Village we turned left because Dunraven Pass is not plowed yet.  We headed to Norris where we

turned right and headed north toward Mammoth.  We stopped at Roaring Mountain to take some pictures in front of the thermal feature there and continued to Mammoth.  When we got there we parked and got out to explore this large hot water and calcium feature from the safety of board walks.

The noxious gasses coming out of the earth with the hot water made my eyes water here.

We drove down into Mammoth and explored the visitor center and general store.  Then we ate our lunch in the truck.  We drove north all the way to the north gate in Gardiner, MT.  Then we turned around to head back home.  It was a 150 mile drive to this point.

We got back home around 3:30 PM.  We put both dogs outside immediately because we knew they had to pee.  There were no accidents in the house!  Yay!  I did the dishes, and then Bob brought the dogs back in.  Their feet were very muddy and Daisy was very dirty.

After cleaning her feet off, we put Daisy into the shower.  I cleaned her with baby shampoo and as I was rinsing her off I was surprised to see her fur coming out in handfuls!  She was clogging the shower drain with all of the fur she was shedding!!

Yes, when we move to Clark, this will be an outside dog.

Powell, WY

Wide open spaces

I almost lost a customer yesterday.  Thank God he had another bottle of oxygen out in the car!

He was seeking a duplicate title for an old horse trailer.  All he had was an old license plate number.  Working with the Treasurer's office, we were able to get the old title number, but it was so old it was not in the computer, and I had to go to the basement to find our old copy of this title.  Then his oxygen started to run low.

While I was in the basement, he went to the car to get a refill.  It took about an hour, but by the time we were done with him, we had his duplicate title application filled out and he was on his way.

Today my first customer was an asshole.  He presented an MSO (manufacturer's statement of origin) for a flatbed trailer, and a bill-of-sale.  I noticed that the MSO signature was not notarized.  It is required on Wyoming title transfers, but this sale occurred in Virginia, so I went to the big NADA book to look up the requirements in VA.  The man comes down the counter, "Is there something WRONG?!!!"  I told him, "No, but I noticed that the MSO signatures were not notarized and I have to ensure that the transfer complied with the laws of the state where it happened."

Next I was taking a copy of the bill-of-sale and as I returned to my desk I was reading it and noticed that the names of the people on the bill-of-sale were the same names printed on the back of the MSO -- the first buyer of the trailer never bothered to get a title in his name, and now he's sold it to the second buyer!  I verified with Mike and Carol that I would not be able to transfer the title, and then explained to the customer, "I cannot make the title for you today.  You will have to take this back to the seller, he will have to apply for a title in his name, he will have to settle the sales tax, and THEN, he can transfer the title to you."  Well, he did not like this, "I CANNOT BELIEVE there is anything wrong with this - I bought this from a retired police officer!"  He stomped out of the office and we thought we saw the last of him for awhile.

He returned at 4:30 PM and went to Laura Hall to do the transfer.  Laura told him the same thing we told him in the morning and he got very loud and and angry saying that we never told him that the seller would have to title the trailer.  I swear I would love to strangle some of my customers!

Otherwise, the day was pretty good - Barbara has flown to Kentucky for the Derby and the atmosphere in the office was much more relaxed today.

It's hard to believe that I went to Navy bootcamp 20 years ago today.  Time sure flies!  

The east gate to Yellowstone National Park opened today and I guess the traffic was going in both directions because we saw a quite a few YNP residents in the courthouse today registering to vote and titling their cars.  We might go and visit the park this weekend since we can enter at no charge.